2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mumzyof2

i complained about some huggies nappies i bought and they were in sale for £1.75 got a letter this morning from huggies with £9 vouchers enclosed to get me a new pack...i didnt tell them on phone nappies were in boots clearence for £1.75 a pack lol.
Got a half price pizza coupon as well and some buy 1 get 1 free kfc meals...about to go scan loacal free newspaper for offers of the week and any more coupons. Ive also cancelled PARK i had paid them £15 so far this year... but will get a £10 highstreet coucher back as they dont do £15 ones

Janey51

Just done the calculator post budget and I will be £54 a year worse off.

mumzyof2

sorry to keep asking but really want to get on with me budget..so anyone know how mnay weeks left/ and what day does the new week start?

MarkyMarkD

To all of you who think you are better off.

If you adjusted your original income in line with inflation, you probably aren't better off at all.

Most of the "increases" in benefits or reductions in tax are just indexation of the benefits/bandings/whatever by the government's (low) measure of inflation, or slightly more. Which means that they aren't enough to keep up with prices of most things that people actually buy.

FrankieM

whitewing wrote: »

FrankieM,

Come back then...(dont worry about actual figures. We're all actually trying to spend NOTHING anyway, lol, and failing miserably!)

Oh, ok...What do I do, though if I'm not worrying about figures, just add up what I spend when I spend it..?

As for the budget....it might say on the calculator we are better off, but I never see the proof of it....and its always a piddley amount for a year, goodness knows what it works out to a week!!!

funkyfunkymonkey

mumzyof2 wrote: »

sorry to keep asking but really want to get on with me budget..so anyone know how mnay weeks left/ and what day does the new week start?

Hi mumzyof2

I think different peeps do it differently. Some do it pay day to pay day, which might be 1st - 31st March, 1st - 30th April etc, for others it might be every 4 weeks from pay day on Friday to a Friday 4 weeks from the start.

My month is currently a 4 week month, 1st March to 28th March.

So, I think the best bet is to decide on your own start and finish dates and pro-rata the total depending on how many days or weeks your 'month' has.

Please correct me other peeps if I am wrong.

FFM

andromache_2

bails wrote: »

Thanks Andromache! If you want a distraction from your essay, you could always tell me in great detail where you're going travelling, I'd love to hear! My sig used to have 'Asia Fund' in it til the end of last year when we decided to change our plans for the time being - we were saving to fly to India and then travel through Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia and Russia, overland through Europe if we had any money left Not for now but one day... We're also going to buy a van, do it up and travel round the whole of Africa (one we can do with the kids)...

I'm distracting myself from a new essay now last one of term though! Thanks for asking: I'm looking forward to it soooo much

WOW, I love all your plans! SO exciting. I really hope you get enough money/time/energy together to fulfil some of them one day I'm sure your kids would find it an amazing experience too. I have a MASSIVE list of places I'd like to visit... one day eh :rolleyes:

I'm trying to get some of my wanderlust out of the way now because there are only so many times in life when you have 3 months to yourself to do what you want! That's kind of the problem though... we really need to tie ourselves down to an itinerary as there are SO many things we want to do! We're flying into Bangkok, then need to book a flight from there to... somewhere else I really need to spend some time over the holiday figuring out what to do! Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam are all on the list... but of course we can't do all of them as we'd spend all our time travelling and never get to relax or really discover the places we visit. Sorry, you asked for great detail! Maybe ask again nearer the time when I've actually got a plan together :rolleyes: I'm definitely going to spend a bit of time over the holiday thinking it through to get the most out of it.

Finally, as an update on my 'don't spend more than £17.80 before the end of term' mini-challenge... £9.09 spent but I don't reckon I need any more food before I go home next week so it should be cool :cool:

Frugaldom

FrankieM wrote: »

Oh, ok...What do I do, though if I'm not worrying about figures, just add up what I spend when I spend it..?

As for the budget....it might say on the calculator we are better off, but I never see the proof of it....and its always a piddley amount for a year, goodness knows what it works out to a week!!!

Hi Frankie, glad to see you back. Why not use this year to assess your entire 'cost of living' budget rather than attempt to live within one? That way, you'll be well prepared for next year.

Mumzy, like I explained before, I update my signature every day to show which day of the year we are on and how many days are left to go. Just divide the days by 7 and you'll find out how many weeks are left in the year. Today is day 72 and there are 294 days left, or 42 weeks.

Budget-wise, my scenario doesn't seem to fit into the BBC calculator and DS is showing at £77 per year worse off. I can only assume I'll be worse off, as self-employed National Insurance is increasing and the 10% element of income tax has disappeared. And none of that is accounting for the general increase in prices of things I buy. There's certainly nothing to help along my savings plan to regain a foothold on the so-called property market (ie - AFFORD A HOUSE OF ANY DESCRIPTION.)

mumzyof2

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi Frankie, glad to see you back. Why not use this year to assess your entire 'cost of living' budget rather than attempt to live within one? That way, you'll be well prepared for next year.

Mumzy, like I explained before, I update my signature every day to show which day of the year we are on and how many days are left to go. Just divide the days by 7 and you'll find out how many weeks are left in the year. Today is day 72 and there are 294 days left, or 42 weeks.

Budget-wise, my scenario doesn't seem to fit into the BBC calculator and DS is showing at £77 per year worse off. I can only assume I'll be worse off, as self-employed National Insurance is increasing and the 10% element of income tax has disappeared. And none of that is accounting for the general increase in prices of things I buy. There's certainly nothing to help along my savings plan to regain a foothold on the so-called property market (ie - AFFORD A HOUSE OF ANY DESCRIPTION.)

Sorry to be a pain again. Just didnt know how i worked out how many weeks were left

djjojojuice

This page really is addictive and empowering. I applied for a new credit card, not to go on a shopping spree but to shuffle for 0% interest deal. Rec'd card with no intro offer, really crap credit limit and 29.9%, I was appalled!! Then I checked, and the address they had done the credit check on wasn't completely accurate.

So with my MSE power behind me I telephoned the bank and challenged their decision. And **TA-DA** intro offer 0%, decent limit so can do balance transfer and 15.9% apr that's more like it. before joining this forum I would have just canceled the card and been flummoxed by the technicality of credit checks and been intimidated into thinking a challenge would mess up my credit score. This is crucial at the moment as considering purchasing property this Summer.

So thanks for the guidance and by the power of MSE I will continue on my path to financial freedom